Prospect Notebook: Castro, Glasnow Pitching Well for West Virginia

Through the first few weeks of the 2013 season the West Virginia Power proved it could hit, but the pitching left something to be desired.

Orlando Castro has allowed just two walks in 40 innings pitched for West Virginia.

That trend started to turn recently with Power pitchers starting to pick up the slack — especially Orlando Castro and Tyler Glasnow.

Castro leads the team with 40 innings pitched with 37 strikeouts, two walks (not a typo) and seven earned runs allowed (with two of those earned runs and one of the walks coming in his latest outing, a 2-1 loss at Lexington on Thursday).

As good as Castro has been, Glasnow might have been just a little better recently. In his last two starts (both wins), Glasnow has allowed just three hits and one run while striking out 17 and walking six. The last time Glasnow was on the mound he struck out 10 and let up just one hit against the Greenville Drive (the Power pitching staff combined for 16 strikeouts in that game).

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Clay Holmes is one of the few pitchers in West Virginia that has not started to heat up as April turned into May. Holmes didn’t pitch especially poor in his last outing (Wednesday against Greenville) but he was especially good either.

His fastball touched 95 miles per hour, but he was struggling with command all day and was fortunate the Greenville offense did not take advantage of his mistakes.

Holmes has just one win in his last seven start, has a 6.10 Earned Run Average and has allowed more walks (25) and earned runs (21) than he has strikeouts (17).

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Josh Bell and Stetson Allie continue to rank near the top of most offensive categories in the South Atlantic League.

Bell currently leads the league in RBIs (32) is second in doubles (12) and third in runs scored (26). Allie is tied for second in home runs (8), is third in OPS (1.030), fourth in hits (41) and fifth in RBIs (26). Allie, along with Walker Gourley, are also near the top for batting average. Gourley is hitting .318 (8th in the SAL) while Allie is fifth in the league with a .339 average in 121 at-bats.

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Tom Bragg

Tom Bragg is a beat writer and analyst for PiratesProspects.com. He is the former sports editor of the (Fairmont) Times West Virginian and has worked at the Charleston Gazette, Charleston Daily Mail and the (Ashland, Ky.) Independent. His freelance work has appeared in newspapers all over West Virginia and he has written for The Associated Press with stories posted to several major media outlets (ESPN.com, SportsIllustrated.com, FoxSports.com). Tom graduated from Marshall University in May 2010 with a degree in Print Journalism. Follow Tom on Twitter: @TomBraggSports